Vasectomy - how long before I can ride?

As title - booked myself in for the old 'snip'. Doctor said 6 weeks and, worryingly, 'it may be that you can never ride a bike again - highly unlikely, but I have to warn you'. oo er ....

Surely a couple of weeks should see me OK, what about running? Again, doctor said to could be 6 weeks. I could lose my fitness and not be able to regain it at my age (53). should I be having second thoughts?

failed, I can't talk about THAT snip but I had surgery for prostate cancer two years ago and three weeks after surgery ( still very tender ) I asked the doc when I could start riding ( anything ) again and he asked me why I wasn't already.

my advice - get out as soon as you can but don't go for long distance and of course pay attention to any weird sensation... you'll know if it's wrong.

Had mine back in September and rode 6 days after. Just be careful though because mine got infected (probably because I got back on the bike too soon), a course of antibiotics and another week off the bike sorted it out, but apparently septicemia is not uncommon if you get the wound infected which obviously is very bad indeed. I'd leave it two weeks and as long as you're not in pain, get back out.

failedengineer - Are you a member of a gym or do you have access to any fitness equipment? Riding a recumbent gym bike will be a lot more comfortable than a normal gym/spin bike. It places more of the pressure on the fleshy buttock area than on the groin area. Also using the cross trainers in the gym would be a great way to keep your activity level up. I know its not ideal but its better than doing nothing for up to six weeks? Not sure if you are a runner either? Its not everyones cup of tea, but could be beneficial to you to try some light jogging? Just make sure that you get some decent specific running footwear and try to avoid pounding the pavements by jogging in the park/off road. If all else fails then go for brisk walks.

it was a week to ten days for me, if you feel comfortable to jump up and down on the spot you're probably ok to ride gently.

A bloke at work rode a bike too soon and ended up with a scrotal abscess. They had to leave a hole in his sack for a fortnight to let all the pus drain out. Question to nurse when he was having his dressing changed; "What's that I can see in therem, then", answer "err, your testicle". result = slightly queasy/faint feeling and no more questions...

If your trusting this doctor to give you the snip why can't you trust his advice to stay off the bike for 6 weeks? It maybe he feels that at 53 it may take you longer to heal than many people on here who were probably a lot younger when they were done. I think I was 39 when I had mine and Im sure it was few weeks before I wanted to ride.

4 weeks for me - it's no longer a "snip", it was a "slash and burn" as they cauterised the tubes and then cauterised the wound closed. Would have been fit enough to get back on a bike within 1-2 weeks but the wound reopened and took another couple of weeks to close again. Chafing from stubble regrowth was quite uncomfortable mind. But not as uncomfortable as when we discovered the guy hadn't put enough anaesthetic in before applying the fancy soldering iron to my tubes!!!!!

Whatever you do, don't be a hero, as if it goes wrong it can go badly wrong - a mate got his badly infected and spent 6 weeks at home unable to wear anything other than a long baggy T-shirt.

All of which reminds me I'm due to send my sample off in the next few days. Best do some Google searching for "inspiration".....

Played squash the next day, and on the bike 2 days after. Had no problems. Everyones experience is unique to them. See how you feel and see what damage they have done to your gnads. Local anaesthetic and local bruising on the scrote but no pain as such.

Cauterised, no shaving (like swadey, a bit more anaesthetic would have been nice). Personally, I advise taking an MP3 player as the sound was gruesome. No discomfort, so back to "normal duties" in about two weeks.

I gave it three weeks which my surgeon had recommended. I'm sure you could do it much sooner but it wasn't an area that I wanted to take any chances with. My op was put back a week and on the morning I ended up having it Woman's Hour had a special feature on all the potential side effects and some are pretty nasty and longlasting, just what I needed to hear. Not to put you off, I've never had a twinge but i did take it very easy. I was also advised to take a salt bath every day until the stiches disolved as a precaution against infection. Unfortunately my stitches didn't dissolve and the practise nurse had to pull them out with tweezers, took quite a bit of tugging, not really painful but a little disturbing to watch.